


The Highest Bidder

by Canadiantardis



Series: Cana's Bad Things Happen Bingo [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bounty Hunters, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Katie has a bounty on her head, Kidnapping, Light Angst, Minor Violence, One Shot, Post-Canon, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23621515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: She made it another street before she heard another scuff of a boot, but the moment she turned, she heard the sound of electricity and couldn’t dodge out of the way fast enough. A high voltage shook a shout of pain out of her. She stumbled and fell to one knee, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Series: Cana's Bad Things Happen Bingo [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674190
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	The Highest Bidder

**Author's Note:**

> thenorthernphoenix requested: Bounty on their head with Pidge. They didn't want any ships, and for the bounty to be for capture only, not to kill her.  
> And thus, this fic was born, lmao. I'm not entirely too sure about the plot, but god did I try, aha! It was very fun to write, anyway ^u^

Being a former Paladin of Voltron made life very interesting. So many species and races from all across the galaxies held one up on a pedestal or as the highest role model. Katie could not count high enough the amount of times she heard people say they look to her for guidance and she was sure she was just shy of getting those “what would Pidge do” slogans, just like the rest of her former team.

And that wasn’t even bringing up the fact she would get messages and videos of families with children named after her, her brother, or the other Paladins. It got her paranoid when she got messages from other humans with young children named Katie or some variation of it, because it was a common enough Earth name, but the sudden increase was only a bit suspicious.

She sighed and pulled away from her current project, an update to Chip’s software. While there were many perks about being the former Green Paladin and being one of the saviours of the galaxies, Katie could not deny there were the downsides. She knew they had all made some powerful enemies, and while most had been defeated in battle in some form or another, there had to be more still living. She wouldn’t be surprised if in some blackmarkets, she and the rest of the Paladins had bounties on their heads.

With a shake of her head, she returned her focus on Chip’s update. She was working to make him use up less storage space, more like a human’s mind and less like a computer with limited storage for memories. He had been complaining about having difficulties with his early memory recollection. It would also give him the general updates to his functions, keeping them working the way they should instead of becoming obsolete, like a general checkup from a doctor for any fleshy creature.

Time tended to lose meaning when she worked, only stopping when she felt her stomach growl angrily at her. It was then that she realized it was late, the sky already midnight blue with the patchwork of faint stars and streetlights giving any luminescence to the outside.

Katie stretched, several popping sounds from her back as she realigned her poor posture and blinked back into reality. She checked her watch to see it was almost 11pm, and groaned. She had promised Matt she’d be more conscientious about how much time she was spending in the lab. She had started working a full 12 hours ago and barely had a break. Her brother was going to give her such a lecture if he learned about it - and he would, they had multiple cameras in the lab for safety that sent all the feed to a secure cloud the two of them had access in, and neither could nor would tamper with it - when she would see him next.

She sighed and stood up, stretching her legs this time, blinking rapidly to check around out of habit. Whenever she became aware of her surroundings again, a small bit of her vigilance that had kept her and the other Paladins safe resurged, every time. Her eyes would pass by everything in her lab, checking that nothing looked off, before she would move, heading for the exit. She quickly rubbed her face and combed through her hair, thinking of a good place to get some food. Katie knew she would be too tired to cook anything, and she had no pre-made meals because she was never really good at planning for that ahead of time. Maybe she should call Hunk to kick her ass and make large batches of meals so she could just heat them up and have them ready to eat in minutes.

But that was a problem for tomorrow!Katie, she knew. She would get something that was open 24/7, likely a big snack rather than a full meal, and after she would call Hunk, she’d buy a bunch of groceries where the two of them could make a ton of stuff that would last Katie a while.

There were very few people out this late at night, and even a great many of the buildings were dark. Yeah, Matt and Hunk were going to give her the earful when they find out.

She heard something off to the side behind her, like the scuff of a boot, but when she turned, she saw nothing. Muscle-memory had her tense, eyes narrowed as she scanned the area. She moved her hand down to her thigh before remembering she wasn’t wearing Paladin armour, and no longer had the bayard. Luckily, though, she knew her hand-to-hand combat was still on par to her time as a Paladin, so she wouldn’t have to worry about being rusty.

Keeping her head on a swivel, Katie began walking again, her eyes and ears open to any suspicious noises around. She walked faster, a brisk walking speed that she wouldn’t normally use, but there was a sneaking suspicion she was being stalked.

She made it another street before she heard another scuff of a boot, but the moment she turned, she heard the sound of electricity and couldn’t dodge out of the way fast enough. A high voltage shook a shout of pain out of her. She stumbled and fell to one knee, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Gritting her teeth, Katie shot out a punch in the direction of where the taser-like weapon had been, connecting with a thin limb, probably an arm. She grabbed the limb and turned quickly to tackle the creature. Sadly, by the momentum, she had no way to stop herself from getting shocked again, full on the chest and another shout erupted from her, her muscles tensing and curling into herself.

A prehensile tail grabbed her arms and pulled her off her assailant, the taser-weapon barely an inch away from her neck now. Katie panted and glared at the creature. They wore a cloak, covering most of their body and face, but the tail looked reptilian, and their eyes glowed a harsh yellow. She saw how they grinned much like any predator on earth; too many teeth.

“I’m impressed, I would have thought your senses dulled after growing lazy.” They had a gruff, feminine voice, and a gravelly chuckle followed. “Too bad they were not as sharp as they had been, eh?”

Katie growled, and struggled to pull her hands out from the tail’s hold. “Who sent you?” She demanded, stilling when the cloaked figure shifted their hold on the taser-weapon.

“You’ll see, little one.” The chuckle followed again. “No more questions now.”

She felt the shock start against her neck, and then something happened. Blackness descended.

xXx

“Yes, I have her. We’ll be at the meeting place in just a bit.”

“How long.”

“A varga. Maybe less. You will have your prize, and I will get my payment.”

“Of course. Keep her securely restrained. She will attempt to escape at any moment. I need her alive.”

Katie groaned, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. The voices stopped speaking, and it gave her time to process their words from before and figure out where she was. She was on her side, her arms bound behind her back - the arm against the floor felt dead from lack of circulation so she knew she had to have been knocked out and like this for a while - and her legs were bound as well. Something was over her eyes, tied tightly around her head, and when she cracked an eye open, she found she couldn’t see. That put her at a disadvantage, unable to tell where they were outside of what she could feel and sense around her. She had a feeling it was a ship, from the metallic tang in the air barely suppressed by tanked oxygen, as well as the metallic feeling of the ground under her.

“Oh, you’re awake now?” She heard the cloaked figure’s voice above her and felt a sharp kick to her back, rolling her forward on her stomach. “Good. And don’t worry, she’ll not leave my sight until the trade.”

“She better not, or you’ll share the same fate your brother had when the other Holt child had not been captured.”

_Matt?_ Had there been a time he… Katie paused, frowning. The tail had looked similar to another creature she hadn’t seen since she had been a teenager. The bounty hunter that had been sent to kill her brother. But she remembered seeing him with Zethrid years later. At least, it had seemed to be him. Had something happened to him?

“You will have the former Green Paladin in your grasps in a varga.” There was a hard edge in the newer bounty hunter’s tone. There was a click and Katie had to guess the call ended.

She felt a foot press hard between her shoulder blades, and she couldn’t help the gasp of pain that came out of her.

“You aren’t going to cause me any problems, got it?” They growled, pushing a bit more of their weight onto the foot on Katie. “Your family has already done enough of that.”

“They’ll know I’ve been taken.” She groaned in pain, her cheek being pushed into the floor. “You think this is the first time this has happened to any of us?”

“I don’t doubt they’ll know, but it’ll be too late. You’ve already been gone for half a rotation, former Paladin.” The foot dug into her back once more before it was removed. “And I haven’t seen a single rebel, Earthling, or Blade ship.”

“Where are you taking me?” She moved a bit to her side, annoyed that she was flying completely blind here. She had no idea if she even had any of her stuff still on her or if the bounty hunter had taken everything of use from her. She had to have one of her distress call gadgets on her somewhere…

“You’ll just have to wait and see, little one.”

“What’s with you calling me little one? I’m a grown-ass adult, have been for years.” Katie growled, and she wished the bounty hunter could see her eye roll.

“Really?” The bounty hunter questioned. “You look like a child still. I guess your body never got the memo you were supposed to age.”

“Oh shut up, you stupid rep-” She snapped before the foot returned between her shoulder blades and pressed her hard against the floor.

“Better keep that mouth of yours shut before I take your tongue out, girl.” The bounty hunter warned.

The foot pushed her into the ground again before it went away, and Katie heard steps moving from her. She wondered how big the ship was if she could be on the floor without touching anything, and that the bounty hunter could move around easily.

She really wished the blindfold could come off.

Katie wiggled around, and with some difficulty she managed to sit up on her knees. She felt around as well as she could to see what she had on her, but it was nigh impossible. The bonds on her arms were the length of her forearms and it was similar for her legs.

She felt around with her fingers, finding her watch was taken, and realizing she had no shoes anymore. She liked that pair, too. Guess the bounty hunter wasn’t totally dumb, but they didn’t know about her automatic distress call. If it had actually been about a half day since she got taken, her automated message would have gone out to the Atlas, Hunk, and Keith several hours ago. She could only hope one of them would be able to find her quickly enough.

“Why are you doing this?” She called out, lifting her head as if that would help with the blindfold.

It was quiet for a bit before the bounty hunter sighed, exasperated. “It’ll be payback against your brother for what you both did to mine.” They said. “You also have the highest price on your head, compared to the rest of your team. It’s like you were just asking to be picked off.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Katie rolled her eyes, “I’m the biggest threat, apparently.”

“Nope, you just have more enemies and people who want the smart little girl who helped beat Zarkon and the Galra Empire.” A chuckle. “The highest bidder is who you’re being taken to, by the by.”

“Do I know of them?”

“Did you recognize the voice when they called?” Katie kept quiet, and the bounty hunter laughed. “There’s your answer. Now shut up.”

Katie sighed and shifted in place. She wiggled against the restraints, but it seemed almost moulded around her perfectly. It was impossible to get out. A small, ever-curious part of her wanted to know what the material was and how it worked, since it seemed to be very effective against her.

The rest of the trip went quietly. No matter how much she tried, Katie could not get the restraints to give even a millimeter, and with the blindfold securely in place - she tried to push it off with her shoulders for a good few minutes before she realized they wouldn’t budge - she was dressed up like a pretty little package for whoever sent this bounty hunter after her.

“Finally.” The bounty hunter sighed, and footsteps approached Katie. They picked her up and hefted her into a firefighter’s carry. While Katie did struggle to get off the shoulder, the bounty hunter had a strong hold over her, and she couldn’t surprise them enough to get dropped.

They walked a short distance before a door whispered open, and more walking. It must have been a cargo ship, which was an interesting choice on the bounty hunter’s part since they were very slow.

Another door opened, this one different in the way it sounded as it opened, like it was pressurized, and then they seemed to step outside the ship. The bounty hunter walked for a bit before dropping Katie without notice. She yelped and groaned when she landed hard on her side against rough dirt. She rolled to her other side with a low groan of pain.

“I held up my side of the bargain.” The bounty hunter said, their foot nudging Katie’s shoulder roughly. “Give me what you promised and I’ll be out of your hair, and not a word about her whereabouts.”

“Good. I’m impressed, girl.” The voice Katie had woken up to spoke at a distance. “Krag, go forward for the trade.”

“Yes, sir.” Another voice - Krag - answered.

In a moment, Katie felt hands grab her arms and she struggled futilely to get away.

“Let, _ugh,_ go!” She shouted, but she was only half-picked up, her legs dragging under her.

“Thanks.” The bounty hunter said, before there was movement and Katie had to guess they were walking away with whatever their payment had been for capturing her.

Katie struggled but couldn’t find any purchase to get out of this Krag’s grip, and was dragged off someplace. She could only hope she was found by her friends before she was taken far away from this place.

xXx

Her hope went unanswered.

She was brought into a cell, where her leg restraints and blindfold were taken off, finally. She had no chance to see the face of whoever took her, but from the ship and the person she could only assume to be Krag, she had to guess she had been taken by Galra. It was most likely she was taken by one of the sects that were still power-hungry and had enjoyed Zarkon’s rule too much like Sendak.

With her legs unbound, she was able to walk around her cell and get an idea of what she was able to do.

She was able to take stock of what she had on her. She had no shoes, and it seemed unlikely that she still had her phone, nor her wallet. She was wearing socks, her black capris, and her soft green v-neck tee. Anything else she might have had on her would be back on Earth.

Once she was done figuring out what she still had - which was only enough to cover herself - she checked out her current prison. It was small, about one and a half of her height each way, and only had a little toilet she had a feeling was going to be interesting to try to use with her arms bound behind her back.

She walked around her cell, getting her legs working again. She was less certain how long it would take for her friends to find her, and could only hope someone would have found a trail to follow. She had to believe they would come get her, but in the meantime, she could always try to escape herself if she could get her arms free.

The first meal she was given was a chore and humiliating without the use of her arms. She had a drink with a straw ready, which was convenient, but Katie had to do some annoying bending to get anything, and she had to be very careful not to tip it over or anything.

After the third time she had almost dropped her drink to stretch out her back, she growled at the floor before shouting out towards the door. “Can I have my arms free to eat, at least?”

There was no response for a tic. Katie huffed in annoyance and flipped her head up to move her bangs out of her face. At least she no longer had to worry about glasses falling off, since she had long since put Matt’s old glasses in a special box, and her normal sunglasses had been left at home when she had gone to work before.

Suddenly the door opened, and three Galra stepped in. The one of the left looked to be Krag, but Katie had no idea who the other two were.

“And allow you to escape between the times of giving you food and retrieving the tray?” Ah, the middle one was the Galra who she had been given to. “I think not, little one.”

“What is _with_ you all calling me ‘little one?!’” Katie groaned, rolling her eyes so hard she swayed her body in a loose circle. “I am a grown-ass adult. I’m short, yeah, fine, whatever, can we move nicknames, they get tiring.”

“Feisty, aren’t you?” The Galra leader - she could only assume he was the leader of this little group - laughed, and stepped further into her cell. He seemed to want a reaction from her, but she sat up straight and looked up at him with a bored, annoyed expression. Giving a reaction was what they wanted, and she had been through this probably too many times to know how she had to do.

Was it more worrying that she had been kidnapped a lot, or that she knew what to do when she was a prisoner to hostile forces?

“Yeah, and I’ll show you just how ‘feisty’ I can get when you get these off my arms.” She stretches her arms behind her back, her nose wrinkling up at the Galra.

“Cute. I know how you work. You won’t be unbound until you are dead, or you can no longer use them.” Several possible ways of how Katie could lose her arms popped in her head as he spoke.

“What do you even want me for?” She demanded instead of letting her train of thought be derailed by the scenarios.

“With you out of the way, it is much easier to catch your little friends. Without the revered Paladins of Voltron, it will be that much easier to restore Zarkon’s vision of the Galra Empire.” The Galra knelt in front of Katie, and gripped her chin between his fingers, shaking her head roughly. “You are only a piece of a set.”

Katie wrenched her chin from his grip with a disgusted expression, glowering at him when he smiled with too many teeth. Like a predator.

“You’re not going to win this. It’s not just us you have to worry yourself with anymore.”

“We’ll see about that.” He stood and turned, leaving Katie alone once again.

xXx

The blast of the alarm woke Katie up with a cry. Her body tensed as Fight-or-Flight kicked in for a moment before her arms reminded her of her current position.

She couldn’t be sure how long she had been in her cell. It had to be more than a couple days, judging by how often - or seldom - she was fed. She hadn’t been seen by the leader since that day, only seeing the guards who gave her meals. It was annoying to say she had gotten good at bending down to drink without the use of her arms. A part of her worried she had lost complete feeling in her fingers, but over her shoulder when she would wiggle them, she saw that they would in fact move still, and she could still feel.

Heavy steps rushed past her door, causing Katie to return to the matter at hand. Something was attacking the ship. She simply had to wait it out, and she would either be rescued soon, or whoever was attacking would lose.

She hoped it was the first option.

The sounds of shouts and yelling were muffled through her door, but Katie still heard that it was approaching her cell door. She bit her lip, sitting down against the wall on the far side of the cell. She had no idea who was on the other side of the door, nor did she know which side they would be on, but she hoped it was her friends.

Soon, the sounds petered out, a shout silenced mid-way through before there was silence outside, besides the noise of the alarm still going. Katie heard the door be tapped on, and seconds later it was opened.

She saw the Blade colours and was getting to her feet as fast as possible.

“Hello? I’m here to-” Keith turned his head from the side of the door, where she guessed the lock was, and caught sight of her, and stopped, eyes wide. _“Pidge? You’re_ the prisoner?”

Several things went through her mind at once, and she couldn’t tell if she felt hurt or not. Had Keith really no idea that she had been kidnapped for days? What about her distress signal? It should have reached him regardless of where in the galaxies he was - unless it messed with electronics.

Instead of letting her thoughts linger, she shook her head, expression hard. “We can save the chit-chat for later. Help me out of these now.”

She turned her back to him and showed the restraints around her arms. Keith hesitated for a second before she heard him walk forward and felt the pressure of the restraints finally, _finally,_ disappear. Katie couldn’t stop the gasp of relief as she brought her arms forward and up, shaking the feeling back into them.

“Thanks. Let’s go.” She said, rubbing the circulation back into her wrists.

“What are you even doing here?” Keith asked as he helped her out of the cell, keeping her in front and to the side of him. “What happened?”

“You never got my signal? It’s supposed to send a distress call to you, Hunk, and the Atlas automatically if I don’t postpone it.” She frowned back at him. Her senses were on high alert as they ran through the halls to wherever the exit was.

“You mean on those pins you gave us?”

“Yes.” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh.” He sounded so sheepish, she had to look back to see him look like a scolded child after taking a cookie without permission. “I, uh, I think I lost it, in my room.”

“You…” Katie glared at him, stopping to do so properly. “You are such a _fucking_ idiot! Didn’t you even hear it? It makes a fucking racket before starting the message that I’ve been taken or unable to stop it from sending. How did you even know I was here, then?”

“I didn’t know it was _you,_ really.” Keith wouldn’t look her in the eyes, pushing her forward to walk again. “I hadn’t been back at base for a couple weeks and only got the message of there being a defector ship with a prisoner a couple days ago. ”

She glowered at him for another moment before running off again with him showing the way. She couldn’t believe Keith, but it was just like him to be this stupid.

They made it to the back of the ship, where the fighter ships would be, without incident. At least Keith was capable enough to do small rescue missions without much trouble. His ship was at the end, closest to the exit, and the two ran as quickly as they could. While it had been easy getting from her cell here, she wasn’t sure if the Galra leader had been dealt with already, or if something was going to come after them soon.

A thought struck her and she looked for a control panel on the Galra ship, veering off towards it when she spotted one.

“Wh- _hey_ , Pidge, what are you doing?” Keith ran after her, stumbling a bit when she had suddenly ran in another direction from his smaller ship.

“Making sure none of the remainder can attack us as we’re leaving. Start the engines, I’ll be there in a couple tics.” She called, waving a hand behind her. She knew what to do without even having any equipment.

Accessing the ship’s controls was too easy, since she knew how the Galra ships worked very well over the years. With a couple swipes and taps, she managed to build up pressure in the engines, so they would quickly overheat and backfire the moment anyone tried to do anything. There was a small chance nothing would happen, with a higher chance the ship would just explode. Katie had to admit, on the enemy, she liked her chances of stopping them for a long time.

With a final flourish of typing, she shut the panel and ran to Keith’s ship. She was ready to go home.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [ LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:  
> Feedback
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